A month ago my wife started her 2005 Honda Pilot and shot sparks out from under the driver-side front tire. I smelled smoke and told her to shut it off. Couple weeks later it’s dead, so a new starter and battery go it, and I promptly smoke the starter. The engine is seized. No clue how it happened. I haven’t seen any oil leaks, and can’t imagine there’s water in it, so I will assume the belt jumped a tooth or took a shit and I dropped/bent a valve. It’s at the shop now to confirm my guess. It’s going to need either a new engine or a head/timing job.

Here’s the question: ‘05 Pilot with 157k miles (we got it for free a few years ago), I’m guessing it’s worth $6,000, and a new engine will cost me the same. Without that much cash laying around it’ll go on a credit card and probably take 3-4 years to pay off. Should we dump a new engine into this thing or just scrap it?